The Breacher is a CQC-oriented Specialist class that would replace the riot shield normally vendable at the Specialist's Vendor. Intended to get up close and dirty with the enemy while leading the charge, the Breacher is issued CQC-oriented gear. In the crate, the Breacher will find a set of B18/II EBA (boots, gauntlets, chestplate and helmet), an armored breaching shield, a ZX-76 assault shotgun with three spare magazines, a large belt with a loop near the side and a pneumatic sledgehammer.

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B18/II Experimental Breaching Armor:

B18/II EBA; the bulkier cousin of the Heavy Grenadier's B18 EPA. Designed for additional protection of the wearer in close quarters combat, the B18/II possesses a slight increase in defense with the downside of being the slowest suit of armor that can be taken within the Marine's arsenal. The Tricordazine autoinjectors have been replaced with Oxycodone injectors that allows the Breacher to still fight on despite suffering fatal wounds for a short period of time. The B18/II's helmet has a ballistic visor that can be flipped up and down. While flipped down, the Breacher will have their vision slightly blurred by the semi-black tiles you'd see with a welding mask up around their screen, but have protection to their mouth and eyes. Likewise, flipping up the visor removes the minor visual impairment but expose the Breacher's mouth and eyes for stabbing and slashing. Weak to AP rounds and everything else that B18 armor would be weak to.

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ZX-76 Assault Shotgun:

A large double-barrel shotgun that loads from magazines and operates with a pump-action shotgun. The default firing mode is the same as the M37A2; firing one shell at a time at a moderate speed via pump-action. The alternative firing mode that can be toggled allows the ZX-76 to fire in two-shell bursts at a low speed; sacrificing fire rate for increased potential damage output at close range. Starting out with four total magazines (three in reserve, one loaded) loaded with buckshot, each magazine holds ten shells. While the magazines cannot be refilled by handloading shells, additional magazines for the shotgun can be procured from Requisition's vendors. Like the M42A, the ZX-76 can be modified with attachments to a limited degree like the gyroscopic stabilizer, barrel charger, rail flashlight and bayonet. Can be placed on the exosuit's belt slot. Permanently stuck with a limited range due to only utilizing buckshot shells.

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Armored Breaching Shield:

The titular riot shield reskinned and partially revamped. Has a moderate chance to block melee and ballistic attacks, but slows the Breacher down while equipped. The shield only works if the attack is coming from the front or immediate sides; an attack to the back automatically ignores the shield, sort of like the Crusher. Cannot block spit or incendiary rounds. Can be placed on the Breacher's back slot. Clicking the shield with the Sledgehammer creates a small action line of 'X clashes his hammer against the shield!' alongside the sound that used to happen when you hit a stunbaton against a shield. Missed that sound. Pretty much used for intimidation, if not anything else.

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Breaching Sledgehammer:

A large pneumatic sledgehammer that deals high brute damage at a moderate rate. Break faces and barricades with it. Fits on a special belt that's issued within the Breacher's crate that attaches to the jumpsuit's belt slot.

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Any comments, nerfs, buffs or criticisms would be welcome.

If you want to see the more outlandish idea I had a while back that probably won't get used but still has some neat concepts and artwork, click the SPOILER tag below.

[spoiler]

► Show Spoiler

The 'Breacher' Specialist Set:

"Their tactical advantage is close combat?"
"Well, so is ours!" - ThunderPsyker, Dawn of War.

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This proposed set for the Specialist would replace the lone riot shield that rests unused within the vendor with a set of gear with unique properties. Sprites are placeholders for lack of a better word; they are suspectable to proper changes to improve quality if the time comes.

The most noteworthy thing is that unlike the other Specialist sets available to the vendor, the Breacher lacks any default ranged weapon in their kit. Yes, it is a set purely dedicated to the art of melee combat, how riveting! Clad in the heavy wooden crate that rackles itself out of the vendor once ordered, the Specialist can crack it open and retrieve the contents; a large and bulky set of reinforced combat armor, a thick shield that still faintly smells of flammable liquids and a massive chainsaw outfitted to look more like a sword than anything else. The B18/II EBA, Armored Breaching Shield and M40 Powered Chainblade are all that comes within the crate.

The massive shield clatters against the Specialist's back as they sling it over. The idle chainblade sways softly against their belt. The armored breaching suit makes a metallic ruckus within the preparation room as the various overlapping plates clatter against each other as the Specialist struggles to fit into it. Once the armored suit is fitted onto them however, a small surge of vitality bursts through their veins. Wielding such a set of heavy plated armor and weapons makes the Specialist reminiscent of both the knights of old and the space marines of the foretold future; such an enmpowering feeling that makes the Specialist almost feel like they are invincible to everything that could be thrown at them.

Once the B18/II suitpiece is equipped, the wearer will automatically be bestowed with several abilities and a variation of the Xenomorph's 'plasma' currency that can be used to utilize such abilities; courage. The rate of how fast Courage regenerates and how long a cooldown is depends on the health of the wearer; while a Breacher at 100% health will regenerate at a low-moderate speed and take a minute cooldown for a certain ability, a Breacher at 50% health will regenerate at a moderate-high speed and take a thirty-second cooldown for the same ability. Like Xenomorphs, the stock of how much Courage the wearer currently holds can be tracked via the Stats tab in the upper-right menu. The Courage system encourages the Breacher to not be afraid of melee combat, but rather to relish and stick with a melee weapon rather than scooting over for a firearm at round-start.

For relative simplicity, it's probably best to now note that a good set of the abilities here are pretty much converted variations of the Xenomorph's special abilities. The charge per use, cooldown, damage and function can be changed; heck, maybe even a few more abilities could be added in. Right now though, I will put a few basic ones in to get a good idea of the Breacher's type of abilities. It could probably be activated from a drop-down menu or by an ability menu tab.

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'IMPALE' is similar in operation to the Tail Attack that can be performed by Runners. This ability costs an initial price of 30 Courage points and can only be properly utilized with the Chainblade. When activated, the Breacher will ready their melee weapon for a powerful strike. Once activated, the ability will slowly drain from the Courage pool until the ability is toggled off once more, used or there is no more Courage to drain, in which case the ability automatically cancels itself. Upon a successful strike against an enemy with the ability active, the enemy will briefly be stunned as they are brutally impaled against the bladed length of the melee weapon; dealing massive brute damage on the spot with a sickening crunch of sinew-against-steel to fit it.

Has an initial cooldown of a minute.

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'CHARGE' works similarly to the Crusher's aptly-named ability. This ability costs a price of 50 Courage points and can only be utilized with the shield. When activated, the Breacher breaks into a speedy charge and proceeds to vault forward several tiles at the same speed that the Crusher goes. Any mob caught in the way of the charge is hit with moderate-high brute damage, briefly stunned and knocked to the side. If the Breacher hits a wall or barricade before the end of their charge, they will briefly be locked upright and stunned while suffering low brute damage themselves and dealing damage to the aforementioned barricade.

Has an initial cooldown of two and a half minutes.

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'STOMP' is also an ability that takes its inspiration from the Crusher. Costing 45 Courage points, the move can only properly be utilized on mobs that are on the ground (stunned, critical, resting, etcetera). When activated, the Breacher brings up one of their heavy armored boots before smashing it down against the mob's head in a brutal curbstomp, dealing massive brute damage to the mob. Unlike the Crusher's attack that could break and damage multiple limps at once, the Breacher's variant instead targets just the head. Can outright kill someone if they've already been moderately or heavily wounded.

Has an initial cooldown of a minute and a half.

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'BERSERK' is a unique ability to the Breacher that costs all 100 Courage points. Once activated, the Breacher will be buffed into a murderous killing machine for the next twenty seconds. Doubled melee damage, immunity to tackling, screeching and stuns and ignoring any and all pain for the duration of time. After the ability has worn off, the Breacher will be hit with all the pain and damage accumulated within the span of those twenty seconds; ranging from a moderate inconvenience to immediate death right after. While the ability is very powerful, it can only be utilized sparingly and lasts for a relatively short amount of time; those who are able to outrun the Breacher being completely safe of their wrath alone. For now, anyhow.

"Enough armored plating to scoff off a tank shell. The pinnacle of tax payer's funds put to good use."

B18/II EBA; the bulkier cousin of the Heavy Grenadier's B18 EPA. Designed for additional protection of the wearer in close quarters combat, the armored pieces of the B18 EPA were modified and enlargened to aid in protecting against small arms fire and blows from melee weapons. While the helmet has been outfitted with a ballistic-style face shield, the chestplate and pauldrons adopted a larger, layered design of overlapping plates like the knights of old to mitigate damage from slashes and firearms. The gauntlets and boots have been modified with additional armor plates to mitigate the amount of visible unarmored sections that are still visible across the wearer.

The gauntlet's pair of autoinjecting Tricordazine vials has been replaced with a single Oxycodone vial that will allow the Breacher to continue fighting against the enemy despite suffering wounds that would kill a normal man. The B18/II EBA protects the wearer slightly more than the B18 EPA by a small margin. The armor is more resistant to acidic blood than the B18. Likewise, the B18/II EBA is slightly slower than the B18 EPA. While the damage recieved from neurotoxic and acidic spits has been reduced, acidic gas/spray along with armor-piercing/incendiary munitions and many other deadly threats that plagued the B18 is still a threat to the B18/II.

When the armored suit is equipped, the Breacher will charge up Courage at a sluggish pace. When unequipped, the suit will not charge additional Courage.

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Armored Breaching Shield:

"Get behind me!"

A heavily-armored shield clad in a dark grey shade and fitted with a ballistic-resistant visor meant for defending against frontal attacks from both melee and ranged weapons. Working as a defensive trinket that complements the B18/II EBA, the ABS does not add protection to the wielder with additional points of defense; instead, the shield promotes a fifty-percent chance to automatically block melee or ranged attacks that are thrown in the frontal direction of the shield. Additionally, wielding the ABS prevents others from disarming or harmlessly touching the wielder. As it is named, the ABS serves as a mobile wall of cover that is meant to be carried up in front in combat; both to protect the wielder's fellow marines from oncoming attacks and to repel most frontal attacks.

The shield provides its buffs towards three of the four possible directions the wielder can face in; in front of the shield and its immediate sides. In a pinch, the wielder can shield-bash hostiles for a moderate amount of brute damage. The noticeable chance to ward off attacks from both human and alien hostiles alike makes the shield very robust if properly used. Like the Crusher, however, the back of the wielder is always unguarded; a prime spot that will most likely incite the enemy to flank or utilize high-penetration weapons. Acidic gas/spray, armor-piercing and incendiary munitions and attacks from behind will bypass the protective buffs of the ABS.

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M47 Powered Chainblade:

"Ah, a chainsaw; the great communicator!"

Since the beginning of mankind, humanity has excelled in the development of killing things with bigger and deadlier weapons. The Powered Chainblade first saw itself utilized when it came to breaching the hastily-fabricated wooden barricades that often constituted the front line defenses of various rebels and guerrillas across the fringes of the galaxy, but it also has been utilized as a devastating melee weapon that could be equated to a true sword of the modern day. A extremely durable chain affixed with a row of sharp alloyed teeth that shreds across the air extremely fast with a loud roar whenever the large 'trigger' mounted behind the thin handguard is pressed down. Unlike regular civilian chainsaws, the M47 Powered Chainblade instead utilizes an electric motor powered by high-capacity powered cells that have enough charge to keep an activated Chainblade tearing on for four and a half hours.

The Chainblade in its natural state is deactivated; it switches on by pressing 'Z' in the hand that is currently holding the weapon, presuming a charged power cell is loaded into the shell. When activated, a brief roar of the chain echoes throughout the wielder's room as the teeth spin to life. The Chainblade pierces armor and carapace while dealing moderate-to-high brute damage per hit with a slightly decreased click delay. While the Chainblade is very good at close quarters, enemies possessing ranged weapons will quickly become the bane of the wielder due to being outside of the Chainblade's immediate range. Hitting an enemy with an unactivated Chainblade deals moderate damage, although it is not as effective as it in its active state.

In the end, this is the byproduct of doing something with the silent nagging that rang in my head for the past week or two since pondering the existence of the riot shield in the Specialist Vendor and how it could then be improved from there to make a set who's unique playing style would spice things up for a Specialist getting bored with the fancy-pants firearms they're accustomed to by now. Besides, who wouldn't want to recreate the final battle of Aliens with heavily-reinforced plate armor and a chainblade?

While the weapons and gear wouldn't be too hard to implement code-wise, it might be a bit more tricky to implement the Courage system. I think you can make it so that it pops up whenever you slap on the B18/II suit though; I have no idea, since I don't know jack about coding. Anyhow, any feedback or suggestions that you guys have would be welcome!

It's less about 'having a big boy chainsword' and more about 'having a big boy melee class' for the Specialist. The original idea I had the chainblade replaced with a futuristic variant of the Ding Dong Breaching Hammer and a ZX-76 with low munitions. Probably'd make more sense to take the latter, now that I think about it.

Nice sprite and all friendo, but I'd sooner see a vehicle specialist that gets the keys to a cargo-tug like ATV in the hangar and rides that around the battlefield.

You could use it to transfer squads around clown-car style, supplies, mount a gun on it and use it in combat. It could be pretty good, maybe

Yeah, I can understand that; it's more that I just had this nagging idea in the back of my head and wanted to get rid of it. Unfortunately, I can't relocate or delete posts at the moment, so it'll be stuck here for the time being. The vehicle specialist idea does sound pretty cool, though. Thanks for the feedback, my dude.

How to make an OP spec class 101 basically, the game is meant to atleast have some semblance of realism and this is just silly. Basically warhammer.

Fair enough, I see that I probably overdone it with the whole 'Courage' system that was meant to appeal to the whole 'melee only' shtick. You're certainly correct when you say that it is overpowered to a degree; now that I look at it in the morning instead of midnight, I can see why. Thanks for the feedback, my man.

Dude this is the coolest thing I've seen on the forums. As a hardcore 40k fan, you have my +1.

ThunderKitten memes are best memes.

Thanks, my dude. Emperor bless. The idea for the Breacher was to mix a melee-oriented playstyle with the abilities of a Crusher to make a.. well, not a counter, but something powerful that other Marines could rally to during a battle.

Sprites looks pretty good,along with the idea
Even if its unlikely this would be implemented, its a pretty good concept, especially with the abilities

Thanks as well. I know it probably wouldn't be implemented (without much change at the very least), but it's nice to throw out some ideas into the frey occasionally to get some feedback. It was also a catalyst that prompted me to test my spriting skills once more after a half-year hiatus.

Thanks, my dude. Emperor bless. The idea for the Breacher was to mix a melee-oriented playstyle with the abilities of a Crusher to make a.. well, not a counter, but something powerful that other Marines could rally to during a battle.

And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head,
And go to Fiddler's Green.

Thanks. In all honestly, I still have a more tame idea for the Breacher if people would want a more CQC/melee-oriented Specialist set available. Drop the Courage system and Chainblade and replace them with something like.. a ZX-76 with a few buckshot magazines. Has eight/ten shots and could be able to fire much faster than the M37A2, but also has a unique action that'd spend two cartridges to fire a two-round burst? I have no idea if that could work, though. Here's a proof-of-concept picture or two, still. Heat shields are a bitch to make.

Very 40k. I like it. They could act as a rallying point for marines, somone to charge behind. Much better than the sniper specialist, and works well as the opposite of the scout. I like the sprite work, as well. Sadly, it seems unlikely it'll be implemented.

However, I think you should keep working on the concept of a close range specialist, it's an interesting idea and the shotgun seems like a step in the right direction, through I do think it should be coupled with some sort of special melee weapon.

Thanks. In all honestly, I still have a more tame idea for the Breacher if people would want a more CQC/melee-oriented Specialist set available. Drop the Courage system and Chainblade and replace them with something like.. a ZX-76 with a few buckshot magazines. Has eight/ten shots and could be able to fire much faster than the M37A2, but also has a unique action that'd spend two cartridges to fire a two-round burst? I have no idea if that could work, though. Here's a proof-of-concept picture or two, still. Heat shields are a bitch to make.

This one is actually accurate to the lore and could work. Heck, it would even be a nice update for marines to counter the xeno rav/crusher buff

Very 40k. I like it. They could act as a rallying point for marines, somone to charge behind. Much better than the sniper specialist, and works well as the opposite of the scout. I like the sprite work, as well. Sadly, it seems unlikely it'll be implemented.

However, I think you should keep working on the concept of a close range specialist, it's an interesting idea and the shotgun seems like a step in the right direction, through I do think it should be coupled with some sort of special melee weapon.

Yes. The only problem is finding a melee weapon that would both fit the general vibe of the Breacher and fit in with the current time period of the USMC. An axe, breaching hammer, zweihander, etc?
This goes out to anyone reading this; please send me a good idea for a melee weapon that would be lore-friendly and good for the Breacher.